CC Sabathia started the Monday opener, but didn't have good stuff, barely making it into the 6th inning before falling apart. Giancarlo Stanton hit a home run, but the Yankees didn't get enough, as the Orioles won 5-4. WP: Mike Wright Jr. (2-0). SV: Zach Britton (2). LP: Sabathia (6-4).
The nightcap, on the other hand... Sometimes, you'd like to take runs from a blowout win and apply them to games you lost, but baseball just doesn't work that way.
Luis Cessa pitched probably the best game of his career so far, going 6 shutout innings, allowing 3 hits and 3 walks. Aaron Boone then took him out, having thrown only 85 pitches. Giovanny Gallegos went the rest of the way, and was terrible.
But he still got credit for the save, because the save rule is as follows: Credit a pitcher with a save if he is the finishing, but not the winning, pitcher for his team, and he meets 1 of these 3 criteria:
* 1. He comes in with a lead of no more than 3 runs and pitches for at least 1 inning. (Gallegos pitched for more than 1 inning, but the Yankee lead was already 4-0.)
* 2. He comes in with the tying run on base, at bat or on deck. (In other words, 1 of the 1st 2 batters he faces. Gallegos did not qualify here, either.)
* 3. "He pitches effectively for at least 3 innings." What does "effectively" mean? Apparently, it means nothing more than "He didn't blow the lead."
It didn't matter, because, this time, the Yankees got the runs they needed. Brett Gardner and Austin Romine hit home runs, and each man had 3 RBIs on the night. Gardner had 4 hits; Romine, Stanton, Aaron Judge, Didi Gregorius and Neil Walker each had 2.
Yankees 10, Orioles 2. WP: Cessa (1-1). SV: Gallegos (1), though he really didn't deserve it. LP: Yefry Ramirez (0-3, and, yes, I know, the name looks like it's misspelled, but I checked).
*
The Tuesday night game is one of those that will be remembered if the Yankees lose the AL East -- or the AL Wild Card Game -- by 1 game. Masahiro Tanaka did not have good stuff, and he didn't get out of the 5th inning, giving up a home run to Manny Machado to tie the game 3-3, after Greg Bird's home run gave the Yankees the lead in the top half of the inning.
The Yankees made it 5-3 in the top of the 7th, but Machado hit a 2nd home run, this one off Chad Green, and it was 5-5. It remained knotted until the bottom of the 9th. Dellin Betances was sent to the mound, and he began by hitting Caleb Joseph with a pitch. He allowed a double to Adam Jones, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd. Naturally, Machado was up next, but, with 1st base open and neither his run nor Jones' meaning anything, he was intentionally walked to set up the inning-ending double play, or at least a force play at home.
No such luck: Betances struck Mark Trumbo out, but gave up a game-winning single to Jonathan Schoop, one of those average players who turns into a Hall-of-Famer against the Yankees.
Orioles 6, Yankees 5. WP: Zach Britton (1-0). No save. LP: Betances (1-3).
*
And the Wednesday night starter was Sonny Gray. In the Baltimore bandbox. This is gonna get ugly...
It did, but in the Yankees' favor. Bird hit a grand slam, part of a 5-run 3rd inning for the Bronx Bombers. Tyler Wade hit one out to lead off the 6th. Romine homered in the 7th. And the Yankees got single runs in the 8th and the 9th.
Gray only needed 1 run, pitching perhaps his best game as a Yankee: 6 innings, no runs, 3 hits, just 1 walk, 8 strikeouts. A.J. Cole pitched 2 scorless innings, and Chasen Shreve a perfect 9th.
Yankees 9, Orioles 0. WP: Gray (6-7). No save. LP: Dylan Bundy (6-9).
The games the Yankees won, well, I don't care how the wins come, only that they do. But the games they lost, it's not just that they were lost, but how.
Hopefully, we don't have to remember.